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Symposium Degrees of Freedom. Art Programs at Universities Symposium Degrees of Freedom. Art Programs at Universities Freiheitsgrade. Kunstprogramme in Universitäten Leuphana University Lüneburg/Germany 16 - 18 November 2011 Universities are sites of research and of teaching. They are sometimes also home to artistic practice. The symposium "Degrees of Freedom. Art Programs at Universities" explores the roles and potentials of art programs at universities, both for artists and for the universities themselves. Experts from different fields and institutional contexts discuss historical examples of specific programs, experiences and incidents from different countries. A particular focus will be placed on the different ways in which the artistic practice is integrated into university structures. The symposium asks, firstly, how universities can foster and support artistic work and how artists can best benefit from the university setting. Secondly, we will discuss the role of artistic practice in the university and explore the potential of art practice for a research and teaching institution. Thirdly, we will be looking at concepts like agency, knowledge, creativity, etc., and debate how their different connotations in art, science, research and teaching can be brought into a fruitful dialogue. – The symposium "Degrees of Freedom" will prepare and inaugurate the new "Leuphana Arts Program" through which Leuphana University will, in the coming years, bring artists into the university. Participants include: Jens Hauser (Ruhr Universität Bochum), Irène Hediger (Swiss Artists-in-Labs, ZhdK Zurich), Sarat Maharaj (Lund University), Pierre Guillet de Monthoux (Copenhagen Business School), Sally-Jane Norman (Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex), Susanne Märtens (HBK Braunschweig), Claus Pias, Beate Soentgen, Martin Warnke, Ulf Wuggenig (all Leuphana University Lüneburg), a.o. Moderation: Andreas Broeckmann (Leuphana Arts Program) Supported by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. Schedule: Wed 16 Nov, 17:00-21:00 Informal Get Together, Introduction, Opening Reception Thu 17 Nov, 09:00-18:00 Symposium, 19:00-21:00 Panel discussion with Sarat Maharaj, followed by LAP inaugural Reception Fri 18 Nov, 09:00-13:00 Symposium, Closing Lunch Participation is free, reservation requested at: <[email protected]> (also for general and accommodation inquiries) Contact Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Leuphana Ars Program Scharnhorststr. 1, Raum C5.225 21335 Lüneburg Tel. +49 4131 677 2204 E-Mail [email protected] Web www.leuphana.de/lap LAP Symposium "Degrees of Freedom" (info status 13 Nov 2011) S. 1/7 Schedule Wednesday 16 November 17:00-21:00 Get Together, Introduction of the participants, Opening Reception Thursday 17 November 09:00 Welcome by Holm Keller, Vice-President of Leuphana University Lüneburg 09:15-13:00 Symposium (statements and discussion) – Andreas Broeckmann (Leuphana Arts Program): Introduction - Art at Universities – Irène Hediger (Swiss Artists-in-Labs, ZhdK Zurich): Think Art - Act Science – Ulf Wuggenig (Leuphana University Lüneburg): Interaction of Art and (Social) Science – Sally-Jane Norman (Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex): Values and Traffics Lunch break, optional visit to Kunstraum exhibition space 15:00-18:00 Symposium (statements and discussion) – Jens Hauser (Ruhr Universität Bochum): Epistemological Biomedia - Epistemic Art – Martin Warnke (Leuphana University Lüneburg): Artistic research and researching artworks: What could a pictorial turn mean to research on art? Break 19:00-20:30 Panel discussion "Between or Beyond the Disciplines" with Sarat Maharaj (Lund University) followed by LAP Inaugural Reception Friday 18 November 09:00-13:00 Symposium – Pierre Guillet de Monthoux (Copenhagen Business School): Cities Foundations Studios. Spaces of Art & Management Encounters – Susanne Märtens (HBK Braunschweig): Art and the Production of Knowledge - Perspectives for Art Academies Closing discussion LAP Symposium "Degrees of Freedom" (info status 13 Nov 2011) S. 2/7 Biographies and Abstracts Andreas Broeckmann Andreas Broeckmann is an art historian and curator who lives in Berlin and Lüneburg. He is Director of the new Leuphana Arts Program at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. He was the Founding Director of the Dortmunder U - Centre for Art and Creativity (2009-2011) and has curated exhibitions and festivals in major European venues, incl. transmediale and ISEA2010 RUHR. He holds a PhD in Art History from the University of East Anglia, Norwich/UK, and lectures internationally about the history of modern art, media theory, machine aesthetics, and digital culture. Pierre Guillet de Monthoux Pierre Guillet de Monthoux is a professor of Management Philosophy and head of the Department for Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. He is also working in Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Italy and does research in the area of integrating Art and Management education and practice. He currently works on bridging humanities and liberal arts into business education by exploring aesthetic philosophies and practices. Pierre has double French and Swedish citizenships and lives in Denmark and France. Cities Foundations Studios; Spaces of Art & Management Encounters. After a theoretical and empirical research into art management overlaps, I embarked on the adventure of a Nomadic University. This project came out the debates in the European Cultural Parliament and has explored places where art, economy and management meet. each year Nomads have been visiting three Oasis and in between experienced several Mirages. We have listed spaces in Cities, Foundations and Studios where learning and experimenting can tap the sources of aesthetics. Now we use the experience to fuel our research and education at CBS in Denmark. Let's look a bit at our road movie... Jens Hauser Jens Hauser is a Paris-based curator, author and arts and culture critic. With a background in Media Studies and Science Journalism, he focuses on the interactions between art and technology, as well as on trans-genre and contextual aesthetics. He has curated exhibitions such as L’Art Biotech (Nantes, 2003), Still, Living (Perth, 2007), sk-interfaces (Liverpool, 2008/Luxembourg, 2009), the Article Biennale (Stavanger, 2008), Transbiotics (Riga 2010), Fingerprints... (Berlin, 2011) and Synth-ethic (Wien, 2011). Hauser organizes interdisciplinary conferences and guest lectures at universities and international art academies. In his current research at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, he investigates the biomediality and wetware paradigms. Hauser is also a founding collaborator of the European culture channel ARTE and has produced numerous radio features. Epistemological Biomedia – Epistemic Art Linking artistic to academic research can produce epistemic art forms beyond mere aesthetic representation of scientific concepts. This may occur especially when artists interdisciplinarily employ or subvert techno-scientific apparatuses and experimental systems by pointing to the blind spots in knowledge production and to embedded cultural metaphors in research practices, LAP Symposium "Degrees of Freedom" (info status 13 Nov 2011) S. 3/7 therefore feeding back into manifold academic disciplines. As a case study, the artistic use of biomedia as means of expression provides fruitful examples of such interdisciplinary contamination. Such projects pave the way for seeing biotechnologies as media in a broader sense, deriving from the origin of this term in physics and biology and going beyond the digital age’s understanding of media functions of the transmitting, storing and processing of information or audiovisual data. Further on, they raise questions about the economy, ecology and sustainability, and help reveal historical lines such as illusionism or indexicality in unusual and fruitful ways. In such art, mediation and technologies are no longer employed merely to achieve an aesthetic effect, but rather are fully-integrated elements of the aesthetic idiom. Therefore, biomedia projects are good examples for trans-disciplinary challenges beyond a purely hermeneutic or image-based approach. Irène Hediger Irène Hediger is Co-Director of the Swiss artists-in-labs (artistsinlabs.ch) program at the Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts (ICS) at the Zurich University of the Arts and curator of the travelling exhibition Think Art – Act Science (thinkartactscience.com). After her studies in business administration, she received a degree in organizational development and group dynamics (DAGG) and a Master of Advanced Studies in Cultural Management at the University of Basel. She specializes in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary creative processes and practices and in the development of inclusive and participatory outreach concepts. Susanne Märtens Susanne Märtens works as Academic Staff at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (Academy of Fine Arts) in the Institute of Art History and Theory, as well as in the Institutes of Art Communication Design and Industrial Design. She worked as the head of Visitor Services at documenta 12, Quadriennale 2006 and at the Henri Matisse exhibition (2006) at K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen/Düsseldorf, and as an assistant to Berlin-based artist Adrian Piper. She taught at the art academies of Dresden and Braunschweig, and at Humboldt University. Studied Art History and Comparative Religious Studies at Free University Berlin and at the Courtauld Institute in London. Publications a.o. on caricature
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